‘Frustrated’ doesn’t begin describing my feelings for the past 24 hours, but it will have to do. Thursday I spent all day studying and gathering information for Monday’s SW and had about a third written. I thought, “I can finish this tomorrow and have Saturday to work outside.” That night the computer decided it would perform an update and reboot itself. Ok, this has happened before but I set my Word to auto save every three minutes. Long story short, it hadn’t saved anything the entire day and all my writing and notes were gone. I frantically searched through every possible directory on the computer hoping to find at least a portion of the files but nothing. Needless to say I was upset, “I’ll just miss sending a SW Monday.” Donna did her usual encourage, “God will give you something tomorrow. Go do some work with your tractor. That always makes you feel better.” I did get on my tractor, but with no intention of writing. To add one more layer of frustration, as I rode past my apple trees, I realized all the apples—several bushels—were gone. Apparently, coons or possums had carted them off. So goes yesterday—frustrating.
As I fumed about my lost writing material and apples, the Holy Spirit put the thought in my mind that maybe some reader was also experiencing frustration and needed encouragement. They may have the false belief they are the only Christian that has such problems. All they ever see on Sunday are believers at their best, appearing happy, peaceful, especially the ministers. They hope that someday they can reach their level of spiritual maturity. The reality is they are not alone, frustrating situations happen to everybody. I don’t find a single person in scripture that didn’t have these kinds of days. One of the remarkable aspects of the Bible is the Holy Spirit didn’t inspire the writers to cover up people’s trouble and down falls. It records good and bad and also shows how they overcame.
Last night, still unsure of what I would do today, I remembered the words of Paul. We are experiencing trouble on every side, but are not crushed; we are perplexed, but not driven to despair; v9 we are persecuted, but not abandoned; we are knocked down, but not destroyed (2Co 4:8-9 NET). This last phrase spoke to me; we are knocked down, but not destroyed. My wife’s common saying when I’m down is pull up your boot straps and get busy. A friend would ask anyone who had been knocked down and said, I can’t get up, “you’re still breathing aren’t you?” So, here I am still breathing with my boots on sharing my frustrating day hoping you are encouraged if something has knocked you down.
A good definition of frustration is a feeling of disappointment, anger, or defeat at being unable to accomplish a task. What causes frustration is as large as life. Anything we try doing, any relationship we have, or any circumstance in which we are involved can bring frustration. I doubt any marriage exists without some level of frustration. Parents know the frustration children can bring. We can create frustration by trying to do something in our own strength not allowing the Holy Spirit to supply His strength. We can take on tasks beyond our training and experience and worst of all, outside of our spiritual gifting. An important insight to victory is that frustration is only an emotion. Like any human emotion or feeling, we don’t have to allow it to take control of us. We will always experience times of frustration but the key is what we do with it. We can learn from it. I let my plans of doing something else Saturday bring frustration. The Lord may allow our plans to be frustrated because it’s simply not His time or His will. Maybe, next week I can revive the one I lost Thursday night. Maybe someone desperately needs these thoughts on frustration. The frustrated disciple’s fishless night gave Jesus an opportunity to display His glory through the miraculous catch of fish.
Writers of the Old Testament use the Hebrew word we translate frustration forty-seven times. It also means annul, break, made void, nullifies, and thwart. Seven times, it is translated frustration. Several lessons come from these verses. When Judah returned from Babylon to rebuild the temple, their enemies hired counselors against them to frustrate their counsel (Ezra 4:5). Here we see another weapon of Satan. Besides raising our blood pressure and bringing fatigue, frustration robs us of our joy and peace and hinders our productivity. The flipside of this is God makes use of frustration as a method for defeating our enemies. When our enemies heard . . . God had frustrated their plan (Neh 4:15). He frustrates the plotting of the shrewd (Job 5:12). The Lord nullifies the counsel of the nations; He frustrates the plans of the peoples (Psa 33:10). Think about all the evil plans of nations around the world today. God will frustrate each one until His time comes. In contrast, nothing can frustrate His plans. For the Lord of hosts has planned, and who can frustrate it? (Isa 14:27)?
If something has knocked you down and you are still breathing, get up, put on your boots, take God’s strength, and finish your assigned task.
Sustaining Word for the Week: You are not alone, frustration happens to everyone but nothing can frustrate God’s plan for you.